Our Dark Past

I just would like to take a minute to express my frustration and disappointment over the manner in which the United States has handled foreign affairs for the past 100 + years. As a nation, we have pursued an extremely interventionist and interest-based policy towards the rest of the world. In other words, the United States has used any means to achieve its own selfish ends. The worst examples of this occurred during the Cold War, essentially the fifty years(more or less) that followed the Second World War. During the Cold War, the United States, through the CIA, toppled governments and installed its own leaders. The reason for this was always the same: to ensure that communism could not spread. For the bulk of the 20th century politicians feared the possibilities that the domino effect could bring forth. The CIA covertly toppled the governments of countless countries, including: Guatemala, Chile, Nicaragua, Ghana, and the list goes on. The leaders of these countries were usually quite liberal and democratically-elected. The fact that they were liberal, however, made them possible-communists in the eyes of American politicians. Unfortunately when the US overthrew the leaders of those governments, authoritarian, fascist, and ruthless leaders usually succeeded them. Examples of this include: the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet who succeeded the liberal Salvador Allende. Another example is the possible US involvement in the coup that overthrew Ghanaian leader Kwame Nkrumah. This coup d’etat in particular resulted in the instability of Ghana for many years after.

Clearly the United States had a large role in the 20th century world. Unfortunately, our actions during that overall unstable period helped lead us to the troubled world we have today.

List of CIA Coups:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_sponsored_regime_change#Iran_1953